UCLA Plays Illinois in Kraft Fight Hunger BowlPac-12 South Division champion UCLA (6-7) travels to meet Illinois (6-6, 5th in the Leaders Division), from the Big Ten Conference, in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 31 in San Francisco's AT&T Park. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN with Carter Blackburn and Brock Huard in the booth and Shelley Smith on the sidelines. Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. PT. AM 570 (KLAC) and the Bruin IMG Radio Network (Chris Roberts, Matt Stevens and Wayne Cook) will radio broadcast the contest. The game will be nationally broadcast on SiriusXM Radio (Ch. 91).

This is UCLA's 31st bowl appearance, and the Bruins have posted a previous postseason record of 14-15-1. It will be the second time that UCLA will have made a bowl appearance in San Francisco. The Bruins played in the 2006 Emerald Bowl in AT&T Park and fell to Florida State, 44-27. UCLA's last bowl appearance was in 2009 at the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C., where they handed Temple a 30-21 defeat.

Series With IllinoisThe Bruins lead the overall series, which dates back to the 1947 Rose Bowl game, with Illinois by a 6-5 count. UCLA has captured the last four meetings in the series, the most recent being a 2004 game at Urbana-Champaign, IL.

UCLA has met Illinois three previous times in the post-season. UCLA captured the 1991 Hancock Bowl in El Paso, TX by a score of 6-3. The two teams have met twice in the Rose Bowl Game. UCLA won the 1984 classic by a 45-9 score over the then-fourth-ranked Fighting Illini.
Illinois registered a 45-14 win over the Bruins in the 1947 contest in Pasadena.

San Francisco Bowl Notes
UCLA played in the 2006 Emerald Bowl, which was held in San Francisco in AT & T Park. UCLA took a 27-23 lead into the fourth quarter of that contest against Florida State. The Seminoles then outscored UCLA 21-0 in the final fifteen minutes for a 44-27 verdict. Chris Markey ran for 144 yards in the game, becoming UCLA's 11th 1,000-yard rusher in the process, to pace the Bruin offense. Quarterback Patrick Cowan threw for 240 yards and a couple of touchdowns (78 yards to Brandon Breazell and seven yards to Junior Taylor). Defensive back Alterraun Verner topped the Bruin tacklers with a career-best tying nine stops.

Bowl EligibleWith its victory over Colorado on Nov. 19, UCLA became bowl eligible. The Bruins have been bowl eligible in 10 of the last 12 seasons (not 1999, 2008).

UCLA's Bowl Record
This is UCLA's 31st bowl appearance. UCLA enters the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl with an overall record of 14-15-1 in bowl games. UCLA was the first school in NCAA history to win a bowl game in seven consecutive seasons (1982-88).Here are the results of UCLA's 30 previous bowl games:

Date

Result

Bowl

12/29/09

W - UCLA 30, Temple 21

EagleBank

12/22/07

L - UCLA 16, BYU 17

Las Vegas

12/27/06

L - UCLA 27, Florida State 44

Emerald

12/30/05

W - UCLA 50, Northwestern 38

Sun

12/23/04

L - UCLA 21, Wyoming 24

Las Vegas

12/30/03

L - UCLA 9, Fresno St. 17

Silicon Valley

12/25/02

W - UCLA 27, New Mexico 13

Las Vegas

12/29/00

L - UCLA 20, Wisconsin 21

Sun

1/1/99

L - UCLA 31, Wisconsin 38

Rose

1/1/98

W - UCLA 29, Texas A&M 23

Cotton

12/25/95

L - UCLA 30, Kansas 51

Aloha

1/1/94

L - UCLA 16, Wisconsin 21

Rose

12/31/91

W - UCLA 6, Illinois 3

Sun

1/2/89

W - UCLA 17, Arkansas 3

Cotton

12/25/87

W - UCLA 20, Florida 16

Aloha

12/30/86

W - UCLA 31, BYU 10

Freedom

1/1/86

W - UCLA 45, Iowa 28

Rose

1/1/85

W - UCLA 39, Miami 37

Fiesta

1/2/84

W - UCLA 45, Illinois 9

Rose

1/1/83

W - UCLA 24, Michigan 14

Rose

12/31/81

L - UCLA 14, Michigan 33

Bluebonnet

12/25/78

T - UCLA 10, Arkansas 10

Fiesta

12/20/76

L - UCLA 6, Alabama 36

Liberty

1/1/76

W - UCLA 23, Ohio State 10

Rose

1/1/66

W - UCLA 14, Michigan St. 12

Rose

1/1/62

L - UCLA 3, Minnesota 21

Rose

1/1/56

L - UCLA 14, Michigan St. 17

Rose

1/1/54

L - UCLA 20, Michigan St. 28

Rose

1/1/47

L - UCLA 14, Illinois 45

Rose

1/1/43

L - UCLA 0, Georgia 9

Rose

More UCLA/Illinois Series Info
2004:The last time the Bruins and the Fighting Illini met was in game two of the 2004 season at Urbana-Champaign, IL. UCLA amassed 481 yards of total offense on the day and scored five touchdowns (most since 2001) in the contest. Defensively, linebacker Spencer Havner led the way with 17 tackles, the most by a Bruin since Robert Thomas made 18 at Washington State in 2001. The Bruins also blocked a field goal (Havner) and a punt (Benjamin Lorier) in the game. UCLA jumped out to a 14-0 lead on a 41-yard pass from Drew Olson to Craig Bragg. Maurice Jones-Drew then raced 47 yards for a touchdown. Olson and Bragg hooked up again on a scoring play late in the second quarter to make it 21-7 Bruins at the half. Manuel White scored on a short run to up the lead to 28-7 early in the third quarter. Olson threw his third scoring pass of the afternoon in the fourth quarter to put the game away, a 15-yard strike to Marcedes Lewis.

1947: The two teams squared off for the first time in the 1947 Rose Bowl Game. It marked UCLA's second appearance in the New Year's Day classic, but fourth-ranked Illinois scored early and often in a 45-14 win. Quarterback Ernie Case scored the Bruins' first-ever Rose Bowl Game points on a short run to give UCLA a short-lived 7-6 lead. UCLA's second touchdown came on Al Hoisch's 103-yard kickoff return.

1984: The teams met once again in the 1984 Rose Bowl. Unranked UCLA captured its fourth straight Rose Bowl Game win scoring a 45-9 upset of the fourth-ranked Fighting Illini. Quarterback Rick Neuheisel completed 22 of 31 passes for 298 yards and four touchdowns (Paul Bergmann, Karl Dorrell-2, Mike Young). UCLA racked up over 500 yards of offense in the affair. Safety Don Rogers picked off a pair of Illinois passes, the first leading to UCLA's opening score in the early minutes of the game. The Bruins led 28-3 at the half and 38-3 after three quarters.

1991: In the 1991 Hancock Bowl, played in the Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX, then No. 22-ranked UCLA captured its eighth straight bowl victory after registering a 6-3 decision. The Bruins took an early 3-0 lead after taking advantage of a blocked punt. Illinois tied the score with a third quarter field goal. UCLA then capitalized on another special teams play, a fumbled Illinois punt, to set up a short field goal. The Fighting Illini took the ensuing kickoff and advanced down to the UCLA 29-yard line only to be stopped by an intercetion by Stacy Argo.

BowlingIncluding the current season, the Bruins have qualified to play in a bowl game in 10 of the last 12 seasons (not in 2008 or 2010).

The 2011 season makes it eight straight seasons in which UCLA has captured its first conference game of the year and then gone on to become bowl eligible -2011-W at Oregon State--Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl; 2010-L Stanford;2009-L at Stanford;2008-L Arizona;2007-W at Stanford--Las Vegas Bowl; 2006-L at Washington; 2005-W Washington--Sun Bowl;2004-W at Washington--Las Vegas Bowl; 2003-W Washington--Silicon Valley Classic; 2002-W at Oregon State -- Las Vegas Bowl; 200-W at Oregon State -- bowl eligible, but did not go to bowl; 2000-L at Oregon;1999-L at Stanford;1998-W Washington State--Rose Bowl.